Thorvald Simeon Niss

Place: Assens

Born: 1842

Death: 1905

Biography:

Thorvald Simeon Niss was a Danish landscape painter who became interested in marine art after becoming a member of the Skagen Painters. Born in Assens, he was the son of Niels Frederik Niss, a house painter, and his wife Barbara Kirstine. When he was 18, he became a painter's apprentice in Copenhagen where he tried to develop his artistic talents in the evenings.

Early Life and Training

From 1861, Thorvald Simeon Niss attended evening school at the Royal Danish Academy and from 1863 worked as a decorator at the Royal Copenhagen porcelain factory. In the late 1870s, he came into contact with Otto Bache, who invited him to work in his studio where he became acquainted with the latest trends in French painting.

Artistic Career

By the beginning of the 1880s, Thorvald Simeon Niss had become a modern landscape artist, comparable to Christian Zacho and Godfred Christensen. The broad strokes and strong colours he applied to his autumn and winter landscapes brought him wide recognition. In 1882, his Septemberdag i Jægersborg dyrehave won him a gold medal in Vienna and the following year a winter landscape of the Folehaven woods was bought by Statens Museum for Kunst, the Danish national gallery bringing him wider recognition.

• In 1885, he went to Italy and Greece, and in 1889 to Paris.
• In 1887, he visited Skagen where he became a member of artists' colony known as the Skagen Painters.
• He painted the sea, adopting a new approach to marine art with his Morgengry (1888) and Strandparti. Grenen (1889).

Legacy

increasingly used etching for his marine scenes, some with symbolic undertones. In 1883, he was awarded the Eckersberg Medal and the Thorvaldsen Medal. He became a member of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 1887 and a Knight of the Order of the Dannebrog in 1892. Important works by Thorvald Simeon Niss can be found at https://Wikioo.org/@/Thorvald-Simeon-Niss, and his biography is also available on Wikipedia.